IRM administration was made responsible for mobilizing a pool of 40 vehicles and scores of staff at Islamabad, Rawlakot and Bagh that were established as base camps. IRM staff guest house was converted into a warehouse to store stocks of medicines, food, shelter and various other relief goods arriving from around the country through personal donations and multi-national and donor agencies. NRSP-IRM was also handling the dispatch and release of relief goods from customs and ports in Karachi and arranging their transport and storage at these three base camps. (next)

IRM also facilitated the travel and stay and work supported with full range of essential medical supplies and equipment of 20 medical teams from Punjab Rural Support Programme (PRSP) with one volunteer doctor and two assisting paramedics. Arranging helicopter transport for senior NRSP and RSPN officials as well as facilitating bookings for foreign delegates and donors to and from the affected areas, was also handled by the IRM administration.

After the initial pressure of rescue and relief, the need for rehabilitating the devastated communities was realized giving rise to new projects and partnerships with various aid and civil society agencies for improving the social, psychological, health, educational, economic and infrastructural status of the affected population.

Earthquake Relief to 300 Affected Families in District Rawalakot and Pallandari
AJ&K

In the aftermath of October 8, 2005 earthquake, a partner agreement was signed between RSPN and DFID in January 2006 to facilitate the most marginalized communities in the EQ-hit areas of  districts Rawalakot and Pallandari, AJ&K. RSPN entered into a partnership agreement with NRSP in March 2006 to work together in the implementation and completion of this task.

The task was to provide emergency relief and shelter material to 300 internally displaced   identified families scattered in district Rawalakot and Pallandari, where the temperature was dipped as low as -7 degree Celsius with heavy snowfall causing the tented shelters of survivors to collapse. The selection of households was on the basis of extreme vulnerability (widow, the very poor, those unable to earn a living because of the loss of wage earners).The project operated in the communities in badly affected areas where the NRSP had a long term partnership with community organisations. However CO membership was not the condition for participation in the project.

A sub-base camp was established by NRSP in district Bagh which housed 1800 Internally Displaced People (IDP) allowing them to survive the winter. Institute of Rural Management trained them on methods of retaining their livestock assets and in vocational skills that would prepare them to earn a living in spring. NRSP provided housing shelters, stoves, toolkits, animal shelters, feed for animals, vegetable seeds for Kharif crops in district Rawalakot and Pallandari. In addition to that, NRSP-IRM was also engaged in on the spot training about ‘principles of seismic-resistant construction’ to assist communities in constructing their shelters with the shelter items they received.  The project lasted till September 2006.

Baseline surveys and impact assessments were developed in consultation with RSPN and conducted by NRSP field staff to facilitate affected community’s social protection and access to compensation as well as claiming other entitlements from the government. NRSP staff also provided transitional shelters to the families and temporary shelters for the livestock as well as provision of livestock feed. Through this project NRSP-IRM trained 175 men and women from some of the poorest families in key livelihood skills and facilitated their participation in cash-for-work programmes.

Another project with support from World Bank, Japan Social Development Banks and RSPN partnership will bring more capacity building support with a specific focus on vocations that will ensure home building skills through mason, carpenter, steel fixing, electrician and plumber training for 5000 community members in 10 union councils in Muzaffarabad via an intensive social mobilization engagement with affected communities. This project will commence in September 06 and wind up in October 07 aiming reconstruction of homes destroyed by the earthquake, rehabilitation of communities by building employable skills and gearing them to unleash their true potential by coming together as community organizations.

In collaboration with RSPN and funding from USAID, NRSP undertook the reviving of education in three earthquake affected areas of Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot and Bagh with 38 public sector schools in each district with the following main components
 

	Reviving 114 govt. schools in temporary shelter/tent structures to restart education for 18,420 children helping to normalize their lives and assisting AJK government to jump start the rebuilding of school physical infrastructure through a cash- for- work programme built into this project.
	Providing these children with bags, notebooks and stationary to restart their education as well as mini libraries, teachers aids, school furniture, shelter / tent structures and latrines for the schools
	Involving local communities by training School Management Committees (SMCs) in the quality and upkeep of their children’s education encouraging them work closely with AJK education department.
	Providing teachers with a secure environment to teach by providing them necessary teaching aids and equipment as well as essential training particularly to help them cope with children suffering from trauma.

Providing psycho-Social counseling to teachers and students in order to address the psychological aspects of the tragedy they have been through.

IRM implemented the capacity building component of the project by designing SMC training modules, teacher training in joyful learning modules and then training of trainers from among the project staff to take up the training of SMC and teachers in the project schools. IRM also helped in planning to facilitate implementation of training events and developed monitoring indicators for teacher and SMC performances. A total of 201 teachers were trained in Muzaffarabad, 210 teachers in Bagh and 212 in Rawalakot, under the school management skills training a total of 222 members were trained in Muzaffarabad, 218 in Bagh and 205 members were trained in Rawalakot.

Teacher Training in joyful learning techniques

CASESTUDY: Benefiting from Cash-for-Work

“I regret sending my six year old Aqsa to school that fateful day of October,” the mention of her loss brings tears to Fazeelat Bibi, “I would never have recognized her body had it not been for the colorful scarf I wrapped around her body ,that day.” Yet Fazeelat, mother of five survivors, has not lost hope, her husband, a carpenter and she are determined to give their children the future they had once dreamed of. Both are working in the rubble clearance of GGPS Ranjata, Muzzafarabad, and are keen participants and beneficiaries of the project.

“Even though Asqa is no longer with us, the other little girls are like my daughter too, I am satisfied I am doing something to help build their future.”

CASESTUDY: New teaching outlooks

“NRSP-USAID Revival of education project was a hope for the teaching community to restart the process of education. The teachers training workshop on joyful learning and child friendly school has simply changed my attitude. A renewed sense of responsibility has injected an element of dedication in my veins. Now I can understand better the academic and social needs of a student and a teacher? This new learning is helping me bond better with my students and my community.”  

Diakonie, a social service organization connected with Protestant Church in Germany signed a memorandum of understanding with NRSP –IRM in April 15, 2006 for a 6-month capacity building project aimed at imparting hygiene and sanitation and management of drinking water supply schemes through the mechanism of social mobilization. The target communities were from of one of the most populous union councils, Salmia, with 16 villages consisting of 3,034 household and a population is 13,504 people. Training took place in a systematic process of first conducting a base line study had been assessing the condition of the knowledge and behaviours of the communities.

A training of trainers (TOT) for 10 days was organized in May 2006 in which six LHWs (government) and 12 Activists (local People) participated. These newly trained hygiene promotion trainers and other project staff planned a series of hygiene promotion training events for each village and teams were formed to conduct the training. The new trainers were taken on an exposure visit to Merra Tanooli, in Muzaffarabad where Islamic Relief was working in the area of Drinking Water Supply Schemes and Sanitation Management.  They learnt the processes used for separating clean water from polluted water and for better drainage system that would prevent many epidemics like Cholera and Malaria. The participants were showed dry pit latrines, water tanks in three Islamic Relief camps. The trainers then conducted these series of trainings with clusters of households to enable the common people to operate and manage their water supplies by themselves by forming “Water Management Committee” for sustained independent functioning in the long run. Through a series of training this project gave OTW to 19 core staff and community activist, operations and management for drinking water supply scheme ToT training to 16 core staff who then carried out field level training of household members 3,034 trainees covering all the households in the communities of UC Salmia. 46 members of the community were also trained in the sustained maintenance of water schemes through Water Management Committees.

Case Study

Sharbat Bi Bi, from Timber Kot, a participant of DWSS training appreciated the training that uses easily available material and simple means to ensure clean environment that prevents the spread of diseases. “Diakonie and IRM have taught us techniques that are most beneficial for women and young girls. Its so simple that we can ensure its maintenance and the proper functioning of the Latrine System ourselves”

CONCERN Pakistan funded project of school management and teachers training in Kotli Satiyan in AJK while USAID funded “Reviving Education Project” , both benefited from NRSP-IRM’s innovation of teaching fearful survivours of the earthquake especially children who find it difficult to talk of their loss and fear about overcoming the fear by raising awareness about the earthquake. The “Lahore Puppet Group” a troupe of four masterful puppet performers captivated parents, teachers and children alike with in Kotli Satiyan, Bagh, Rawalakot and Muzaffarabad with a combined audience of 3382 gathered through the 21 performances held at various schools and community centers. IRM also facilitated first aid messages for children with help from young volunteers from the audience. This fascinated the children who still remember the helplessness of being unable to immediately lend help to injured family and friends at the time of the earthquake. Messages of hygiene to prevent disease were also promoted at these occasions and were well received by children and adults alike.